Raymond Poisson

Raymond Poisson (1630–1690) was a French actor and playwright. Mainly a comic actor, he used the stage names Crispin in comedy and Belleroche in tragedy.[1]

Poisson as Crispin

Career

Poisson joined the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris, primarily as a comic rival to Molière, who played at the Palais-Royal.[1] As a comedian Poisson wore a black servant costume in a Spanish style[1] and was noted for his stutter.[2] He appropriated the character of Crispin from Scarron's L'Écolier de Salamanque (1654), playing it himself,[2] and wrote and appeared in Lubin (1660) and Le Baron de la Crasse (1661).[1]

He became a founding member of the Comédie-Française in 1680.[3] His son Paul and his grandsons Philippe and Francois-Arnoul all became actors, whilst his granddaughter Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez became a writer.

Notes
  1. Gaines 2002, p. 374.
  2. Hartnoll 1983, p. 73 ("Belleroche").
  3. Hartnoll 1983, p. 169 ("Comédie-Française").

Bibliography
  • Curtis, A. Ross (1972). Crispin Ier : la vie et l'œuvre de Raymond Poisson, comédien-poète du XVIIe siècle. University of Toronto Romance Series (in French). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802052487. OCLC 1148619149 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Gaines, James F., editor (2002). The Molière Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313312557.
  • Hartnoll, Phyllis, editor (1983). The Oxford Companion to the Theatre (fourth edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192115461.
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